Breakdown of La médica diría que la supervivencia es lo más importante.
ser
to be
la médica
the doctor
que
that (relative pronoun, conjunction)
decir
to say / to tell
más
more; else (anything else, nobody else)
importante
important
lo
the … thing (neuter article before an adjective)
la supervivencia
the survival
Questions & Answers about La médica diría que la supervivencia es lo más importante.
Why is the verb diría and not "deciría"?
Diría is the conditional form of decir (to say/tell). Decir has an irregular stem in the conditional (and future) tense. Instead of adding the ending to the full infinitive, you use the special stem dir- and add the standard conditional endings (like -ía for the he/she/it form).
Why do we use lo in "lo más importante" instead of el or la?
Here, lo is the neuter article. When you put lo in front of a masculine singular adjective like importante, it turns it into an abstract noun meaning "the [adjective] thing". So, lo más importante translates perfectly to "the most important thing".
Even though the sentence starts with the conditional "diría", why is the second verb "es" in the normal present tense (indicative) instead of the subjunctive?
The verb decir only triggers the subjunctive when it is used to give a command or influence someone (like "The doctor would tell you to rest"). Here, diría que is just reporting a statement or belief. Because it declares a fact rather than expressing doubt or an order, it takes the normal indicative tense (es).
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